


Happy Birthday, Punk

by LaBelleIzzy



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Best Friends, Friendship, Gen, Male Friendship, Quote: I'm with you 'til the end of the line
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-09 13:44:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19477111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaBelleIzzy/pseuds/LaBelleIzzy
Summary: Two supersoldiers snark each other over brunch. Compliant with Avengers: Endgame, also, spoilers!





	Happy Birthday, Punk

The reflection from the window across the street lit up Steve's hair, picking up the remaining strands of gold among the silver.

Bucky took a moment to collect himself. They were always better at actions than with words, anyway. He smirked at a flood of memories, glancing down at himself, hands in the pockets of the light hoodie he could just about stand wearing in the July heat. At least his hair is tied up and off his neck, so he's not sweating too bad.

He made his way over to the bistro table where Steve was leaning back, one hand around a cup of coffee, his other hand draped across the chair next to him.

"Hey, punk, this seat taken?"

Steve's head tips just enough to point his ear behind him where Bucky is standing, grinning.

"Bucky."

It's been a few months and a half dozen missions since they saved the world and lost Tasha and Tony.

Everyone on the planet has been dealing with low level grief and shock. It's been a life altering event, though it's not even that different from Bucky's normal background radiation...

And he and Steve, they haven't had the time for more than a few check-ins in all the business of returning the world back to what it was. Or rather, a combination of what it was and what it became while everyone was gone. Because there were a fair number of assholes that got dusted during the Snap, and it turns out that assholes are still assholes when they come back from where everyone was stashed away for five years. So there was an almost honeymoon period for a little while as everyone adjusted to what Earth was Now, but eventually the assholes came back out of the woodwork.

Bucky and the Avengers still had jobs, for good or for ill, and probably always would.

He mostly wipes the grin off his face and steps forward as Steve pushes away from the table. They pull each other into a hug.

"It's good to see your face, ya jerk." He leans back, and Steve's wrinkles wink in and out as his own grin shapes his face. 

"I'd say I missed your ugly mug but that would be a lie... and then anyway, here you were, sitting there with an entirely different ugly mug."

Bucky thumps him gently on the shoulder, and they both sit down, quietly being in each other's presence. 

Once the waitress has brought over the carafe and Bucky's got his coffee doctored how he likes it, he takes off his hoodie, hangs it off the back of his chair. Shuri's cloaking technology is impeccable, of course, and he and Steve both admire his matching hands for a moment in thoughtful silence. 

Bucky shrugs and drinks from his mug.

After a long moment, "So you took the long slow road back, huh?"

"Yup." Steve smiles just a little bit into his coffee.

"Good?"

Steve sets his cup down, looks straight at him, and nods slowly, a contented look on his face. "Mostly, yup."

"Tell me some stories someday, grandpa." Bucky smirked.

A flash of that gonna-punch-you fire flares in the droopy blue eyes and Steve humphs. Begrudgingly he says, and the Brooklyn is strong in his voice again, "...Someday. Hey respect your elders, ya jerk."

Bucky feels a genuine grin beam out at his oldest friend, and God, he's got to use that line someday on Steve, but maybe not today, because he raises his plain white diner coffee cup and reaches halfway across the table.

"Happy birthday, ya old geezer," and Steve authentically snorts, shaking his head with a reluctant smile, and raising his own mug to tap Bucky's.

"Thanks, bud. You gonna buy brunch for the birthday boy?"

Bucky just grins and waves the waitress back over. He hopes the kitchen is ready for two supersoldier appetites.

**Author's Note:**

> composed this flash fic in the AO3 window, because I woke up with this in my head on July 4.
> 
> ...God I bet Steve has some stories to tell!
> 
> Happy Fourth, y'all. Put on your Captain America shirts and let's go do some more work to fix the world together.
> 
> https://youtu.be/BW8_usG_B0E
> 
> How does Representative Lewis call it? Let's go get in some Good Trouble.


End file.
